ELDER JACOB LUCAS -A Parisian journey....one day at a time in the life of an LDS Missionary...

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Monday, January 5, 2015

Happy New Year!

Hello Everyone!! Sorry it has been a while since I got out a mass email!! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years Day Fête!!

Overall, this week has been really great! Unfortunately, the Stiles are still unavailable because Eric, the dad, is still in the hospital.. I really hope that he is okay. New Years was sooo much fun! We ate some crazy food! We had Coquille St. Jaques, which is this incredible clam stuff with a really good sauce over it. AMAZING! And we also had a cow tongue! ANd it was surprising really good! I enjoyed it! :) That was at the Pierache's house. He is our DMP, or ward mission leader :) Such a cool guy!! For New Year's Eve, we went to the Brenders' house! And it was sooo much fun!! The speak English and which made it much more enjoyable for me hahaha :) Since we get to Watch a Disney movie, they used their porjector and we had a mini cinema! And we watched.... Ratatouille!! I know weird right? Watching an Amercian made movie about France, in France, in French... Wow :) It was great!!

We also went back to see Marie Therese and we got her to come to Church!! First person to come to Church on my mission!!!!! :))) It was so great!! So was really touched my some of the speakers and even got emotional. I feel so evil saying that I was happy that she was crying hahaha, but I was glad that she was touched :) It was a little awkward because after Church, while waiting for her ride, she wanted to go smoke... That will be an interesting lesson, that word of wisdom haha :) We have another appt with her on wednesday. Albert isn't doing too good. He doesn't believe that there can be another true book besides the Bible. We found a Romanian family and they are doing awesome!! We are really cruising with the lessons. They are struggling with a wayward child, and we were able to show how we can find answers thorugh the Book of Mormon and showed them the story of Alma the Younger and how his father prayed for him and the Lord, through the faith of the father was able to help the struggling son. It's so true! The Book of Mormon really can help us with all our challenges!

I have also been Learning a lot about faith! It's a lot like being a QB. It's impossible to complete a pass if you don't beleive that it can happen or that you can do it. And sometimes with the gospel we feel like we have to KNOW that it is all true before we believe. And even though we have these feelings of great hope and peace that it is true, we just don't know. But that's where wehave to believe. Even though the play hasn't happened and the you haven't thrown the pass yet, you have to believe that you can do it and that your receiver will be there to catch it! Quite literally you have to step out into the darkness before you will see the light of the truthfulness of the gospel! And it's not blind faith because you trust the spirit-or those feelings that tell you it is true!! And it can be hard at first, but once you see that Heavenly Father is there-that the pass did get completed- you begin to believe a little more and you try again and again. And each time it works out, you have more faith- more belief- until you KNOW that it will work out. You know that you can step out into the darkness because you KNOW that Heavenly Father will be there to catch you if you fall. You know that the Book of Mormon is true, because you have felt the Spirit confirm it again and again and you have seen how it has blessed your life! You KNOW that you can complete that pass when it's time to be clutch in the game and all the pressure is on. There have been a lot of times on my mission when I feel like I came here so that I could have specific challenges that would force my testimony to be put to be tested. And I have learned to believe. I have learned to step out into the darkness, because I BELIEVE that this gospel is true, not because I knew it was in the moment. And it was there at that moment that we jump off the ledge of doubt and fear, knowing that if Heavenly Father won't catch us, we will fall, And then the miracles happens. He doesn't just catch us. He enables us to fly! The pass is completed. You took the risk and you won the game because of it! And I know that this gospel is true! I have had to jump again and again into the darkness of fear and uncertainty and EVERY time Heavenly Father has made me fly. And that's why we are here. To learn how to fly!! Heavenly Father wants us to be able to fly! He wants us to become strong in faith and hope! Seeing isn't believing; Believing is seeing. Most great things in life happened because someone took a risk and ventured into the unknown and tried to see what had never before been seen, and achieve what had never before been achieved.

I know that you can know that this gospel is true. Don't hesitate to know! Go read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true and I promise that by the spirit, by the feelings in your heart, you too will know! And sometimes it can be hard, but trust me, if you choose to believe, Heavenly Father will make you fly! I love you all!! Until next time :)